Well, the lights have gone out on the Philadelphia Eagles season, and it might be lights out for Andy Reid, too. It's been a spectacular fall for a team expected/predicted to be the class of the NFC this year, with Vick, Maclin, McCoy and co. on offense and a defense bulked up with the addition of Rodgers-Cromartie and Asomugha. Now, they're 4-7 and will be lucky to finish at .500 by the end of the season. The Eagles were 10-0 up against New England on Sunday, and were outscored 38-10 by Brady and the Pats, for a 38-20 loss. Michael Vick's return can't come quickly enough for Philadelphia, not that he's exactly lit up the league this year.
Ndamukong Suh did nothing to shake the league-wide belief that he's one of the dirtiest players in football with his antics on Thanksgiving Day in Detroit. Of all places to get ejected, he's chosen a nationally-televised game on one of the biggest football days on the calendar, against an undefeated team - the defending Super Bowl championships - with the Commissioner watching. Suh will definitely be suspended two or three games for the stomp, but being the best player, arguably, on the Lions defense, his ejection was a definite turning point. Bad image for Detroit to portray in their showcase game.
The only team that's going to beat the Green Bay Packers are themselves. They are a brilliant football team, and I can only think that a defensive or special teams lapse could be their undoing. Other than that, they'll go through the regular season undefeated and be in the same position that New England were heading into the 2007-08 playoffs. It's one thing to go unbeaten through the regular season, and another entirely to carry that through the month of January and make it to a Super Bowl and win it, with the weight of pressure that they'll be labouring under by then. This is a good football team, but so were the Patriots, and maybe, just maybe, it was so much external pressure that became their undoing.
Changes need to be made in San Diego. Philip Rivers is throwing picks like it's going out of fashion and the Chargers are on a six-game losing streak, after an OT loss to Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos, 16-13. This is less about Tebow and more about the giant fall that the Chargers have made, from perennial AFC contenders to a team who'll struggle to make .500 this year and are off the pace even in the AFC West. If ever there's a coach on the hot seat, it's Norv Turner in San Diego. Another loss or two, and he might not even last the season.
Tim Tebow is 5-1 as starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos but that doesn't make him legit in my eyes. Sure, the win-loss record is impressive, but specifically whether he could win games was not the issue. The issue is/was, is Tim Tebow an NFL quarterback. At the moment, no, not in the best and true sense of the word. Still, this is an impressive streak and it makes you wonder what Denver might do in the upcoming draft. Do they stick with Tebow and not draft someone like Brandon Weeden, Robert Griffin III or Matt Barkley? Tough choice for John Elway, and not one I'd want to be making.
Horrible luck for the Houston Texans. They've suffered a rash of injuries all season, and this week have lost back-up QB Matt Leinart after losing starting QB Matt Schaub last time out. Now the Texans, serious AFC contenders at 8-3, turn to rookie signal caller TJ Yates from the University of North Carolina, to see them through. Just as well the Texans have a monster defense, a seriously good running game - maybe the best one-two in the league - and a guy like Andre Johnson, who only needs the football delivered vaguely in the same ZIP code area for him to go up and bring the football down.
Ridiculous post-TD celebration by Buffalo's Stevie Johnson. He imitated Plaxico Burress shooting himself. For a moment I caught myself laughing, but then wondered why. It was just a dumb thing to do. I don't agree with the NFL cracking down on celebrations, group-oriented or otherwise, there are better celebrations to be enjoyed than the crap Johnson came out with. I'm all for creativity, but that was just dumb. The ensuing 15 yard penalty gave the Jets a handy short field, from which they scored to win the game. Karma?
Little doubt that the Packers are the best team in the NFC, but the New Orleans Saints are the second-best, and I'll be very surprised if we don't see the Saints and the Pack, Brees vs. Rodgers, for the NFC Championship Game. The way they sliced through my Giants was horrible but in a strange way, it was also very impressive. The San Diego Chargers must be really kicking themselves - severely and weekly - for letting Drew Brees go!
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
NCAA College Football 2011: Week Thirteen Review
The sad fact of conference realignment played itself out on Thursday night when Texas and Texas A&M met for the last time in a long time - and, perhaps, forever - because the Aggies, in part due to Texas' Longhorn network, are headed to the SEC in 2012 and the Horns have advised that their schedule is full til at least 2018. Shame to see a rivalry dating back 100 years fall by the wayside, but that, unfortunately, is the way of big-time college football in this era. At least the final contest was a memorable one, with Texas recording a 27-25 on a field goal as time expired. Mack Brown and the 'Horns really needed that.
Barring a meltdown in the C-USA Conference Championship Game against Southern Miss, the Houston Cougars will record their first-ever undefeated season. The pot of gold at the end of that rainbow is a BCS bowl berth, probably the Sugar Bowl and probably against Michigan. A great way, win or lose, for senior, record-setting QB Case Keenum to go out. A Cougars vs. Wolverines match-up will be very intriguing.
The gap between the two best teams in the country - LSU and Alabama - and the third - Arkansas - was painfully obvious on Black Friday, when the Tigers put the cleaners through the Hogs to the tune of 41-17 after Arkansas had led early in the second quarter, 14-0. Anyone who doesn't believe that the BCS National Championship Game should be a rematch of LSU vs. Alabama is way off the mark. The talent gap between those two and everyone else is huge.
Finally, Michigan gets a victory over Ohio State after seven straight losses. What a season it's been for the rejuvinated Wolverines under Brady Hoke, the man who has resurrected the program after Rich Rodriguez left it in tatters. The defense is better, the offense keeps humming along, and there seems to be plenty of optimism going forward. Could anyone have predicted such a stunning turnaround? If Hoke isn't Coach of the Year, there's something wrong. Credit, too, to Greg Mattison, whose defense really stepped up after too many years under Rodriguez of giving up games and huge total yards numbers. Michigan should end up in the Sugar Bowl, a good end to a brilliant comeback season. The future is bright in Ann Arbor.
The Penn State dream finally crumbled, as the Nittany Lions, besieged by internal and external pressure for weeks now, folded against Russell Wilson and Wisconsin 45-7 at Camp Randall Stadium, and now we get the best match-up possible for the inaugural Big Ten Championship Game. A question without notice: were it not for two extremely lucky and fortuitous Hail Mary passes for Michigan State and Ohio State against the Badger defense, Wilson might well have sewed up the Heisman Trophy.
Clemson are in all sorts of trouble heading into the ACC Championship Game. Since getting their ticket to the game punched, the Tigers have looked lacklustre during a horror stretch, losing two of their last three, stretch in which QB Tajh Boyd, once touted as a Heisman candidate as the Tigers opened 8-0 and had their high-powered offense rolling, has thrown 7 picks. Clemson has committed 11 turnovers in that time. So what happens next week when Clemson take on a high-flying Virginia Tech team fresh off of it's best win of the season? Nothing good...
USC went out and pounded UCLA for sixty straight minutes to ensure the country will take notice of them in 2012, when the post-season ban is done. That once maligned Trojan defense pitched a shutout after doing enough to contain Oregon's LaMichael James and Darron Thomas last week. The 50-0 drubbing, in which QB Matt Barkley threw 6 TDs and bested Carson Palmer's school record for most touchdowns thrown in a season, has probably cost Bruins coach Rick Neuheisel his job at Westwood, a few days after claiming that the "gap" between the Bruins and Trojans has closed. Mind that gap, Rick.
As USC sit out another post-season, UCLA, battered around from the get-go against USC and perhaps sixty minutes of football away from a new coach, are now going up to Eugene, Oregon to play Chip Kelly's Ducks for the Pac-12 Championship, and, barring a miracle win that not many people even give a remote chance of happening, will have to apply to the NCAA for a waiver to play in a Bowl game, as they will be under .500. If that isn't the biggest joke in Pac-10/12 history - that the Bruins are actually in the Championship Game - I honestly don't know what is.
Illinois head coach Ron Zook lost his job on Sunday, after spearheading a season of two definite and distinguished halves. The Illini looked among the Big Ten's best as they opened 6-0 but the wheels fell off in the worst possible way after that, as they finished 0-6. Whoever inherits that program has a LONG way to go.
Barring a meltdown in the C-USA Conference Championship Game against Southern Miss, the Houston Cougars will record their first-ever undefeated season. The pot of gold at the end of that rainbow is a BCS bowl berth, probably the Sugar Bowl and probably against Michigan. A great way, win or lose, for senior, record-setting QB Case Keenum to go out. A Cougars vs. Wolverines match-up will be very intriguing.
The gap between the two best teams in the country - LSU and Alabama - and the third - Arkansas - was painfully obvious on Black Friday, when the Tigers put the cleaners through the Hogs to the tune of 41-17 after Arkansas had led early in the second quarter, 14-0. Anyone who doesn't believe that the BCS National Championship Game should be a rematch of LSU vs. Alabama is way off the mark. The talent gap between those two and everyone else is huge.
Finally, Michigan gets a victory over Ohio State after seven straight losses. What a season it's been for the rejuvinated Wolverines under Brady Hoke, the man who has resurrected the program after Rich Rodriguez left it in tatters. The defense is better, the offense keeps humming along, and there seems to be plenty of optimism going forward. Could anyone have predicted such a stunning turnaround? If Hoke isn't Coach of the Year, there's something wrong. Credit, too, to Greg Mattison, whose defense really stepped up after too many years under Rodriguez of giving up games and huge total yards numbers. Michigan should end up in the Sugar Bowl, a good end to a brilliant comeback season. The future is bright in Ann Arbor.
The Penn State dream finally crumbled, as the Nittany Lions, besieged by internal and external pressure for weeks now, folded against Russell Wilson and Wisconsin 45-7 at Camp Randall Stadium, and now we get the best match-up possible for the inaugural Big Ten Championship Game. A question without notice: were it not for two extremely lucky and fortuitous Hail Mary passes for Michigan State and Ohio State against the Badger defense, Wilson might well have sewed up the Heisman Trophy.
Clemson are in all sorts of trouble heading into the ACC Championship Game. Since getting their ticket to the game punched, the Tigers have looked lacklustre during a horror stretch, losing two of their last three, stretch in which QB Tajh Boyd, once touted as a Heisman candidate as the Tigers opened 8-0 and had their high-powered offense rolling, has thrown 7 picks. Clemson has committed 11 turnovers in that time. So what happens next week when Clemson take on a high-flying Virginia Tech team fresh off of it's best win of the season? Nothing good...
USC went out and pounded UCLA for sixty straight minutes to ensure the country will take notice of them in 2012, when the post-season ban is done. That once maligned Trojan defense pitched a shutout after doing enough to contain Oregon's LaMichael James and Darron Thomas last week. The 50-0 drubbing, in which QB Matt Barkley threw 6 TDs and bested Carson Palmer's school record for most touchdowns thrown in a season, has probably cost Bruins coach Rick Neuheisel his job at Westwood, a few days after claiming that the "gap" between the Bruins and Trojans has closed. Mind that gap, Rick.
As USC sit out another post-season, UCLA, battered around from the get-go against USC and perhaps sixty minutes of football away from a new coach, are now going up to Eugene, Oregon to play Chip Kelly's Ducks for the Pac-12 Championship, and, barring a miracle win that not many people even give a remote chance of happening, will have to apply to the NCAA for a waiver to play in a Bowl game, as they will be under .500. If that isn't the biggest joke in Pac-10/12 history - that the Bruins are actually in the Championship Game - I honestly don't know what is.
Illinois head coach Ron Zook lost his job on Sunday, after spearheading a season of two definite and distinguished halves. The Illini looked among the Big Ten's best as they opened 6-0 but the wheels fell off in the worst possible way after that, as they finished 0-6. Whoever inherits that program has a LONG way to go.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
NCAA College Football: Week Thirteen Australian TV Guide
This is it, the biggest weekend of the year, with some of the best rivalry games all inside a crazy forty-eight hour period. 4.00am Sunday morning in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is the renewal of the classic Michigan vs. Ohio State battle. The Wolverines seek their first victory in seven years against their most hated foe.
It is sure to be a classic game as always between the Wolverines and the Buckeyes, even with Urban Meyer Mania seeming to have taken hold. But Australia won't see the game. Instead, ESPN, in a seriously disastrous programming move, is instead showing Mixed Martial Arts and an NIT Basketball game on ESPN and replays of Classics Boxing, World Football Rivalries and a 30 for 30 documentary on ESPN2. Nor is there Penn State vs. Wisconsin or Virginia vs. Virginia Tech or any other great rivalry games...
EPIC fail, ESPN. A horrible weekend to desert the college football scene after a great season.
Friday 25 November
Texas vs. Texas A&M (12.00pm; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
Saturday 26 November
Louisville vs. South Florida (3.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
Iowa vs. No. 22 Nebraska (4.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
Boston College vs. Miami-FL (7.30am;ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
Pittsburgh vs. West Virginia (11.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
College Football Scoreboard (2.00pm; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
California vs. Arizona State (2.15pm; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
Sunday 27 November
College GameDay - Auburn, Alabama (1.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
College Football Scoreboard (11.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 18 Clemson vs. No. 14 South Carolina (11.45am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 22 Notre Dame vs. No. 4 Stanford (12.00pm; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
NFL 2011: Week Eleven Review
The Tim Tebow legend seems to grow a little more each week, and on Thursday night in prime time at Mile High - albeit on the hard-to-find NFL Network - the Denver quarterback led the Broncos to an improbable victory, sealing a 17-13 triumph over a lackluster NY Jets outfit with a 20-yard TD run, the final play of an epic 95-yard drive with. The great irony is that the Jets managed to contain Tebow well until that point. He had only 48 rushing yards and no TDs until that last play, a 3rd down and 4, where everything Gang Green had done all night counted for naught.
Speaking of the NFL Network, the combination of Brad Nessler and Mike Mayock has breathed new life into the Thursday night package that suffered last year due to the dumb analyst duo of media hacks Matt Millen and Joe Theismann, whose combined stupidity probably cost play-by-play man Bob Papa a chance to return. I've always loved Nessler's work on ESPN's college football games, and Mayock is making a name for himself thanks to the exposure he gets from NBC's Notre Dame coverage and his status as NFL Network's Draft Guru. This is a solid broadcast team. They do a solid job without any fanfare.
Of serious concern is the anaemic NY Jets offense. QB Mark Sanchez is feeling the heat from the media in the Big Apple. There isn't a really serious deep threat for the Jets, which limits Sanchez's options. They need to draft a good one next April, in a draft that will feature some electric receivers. Even so, this is a disappointment of a season thus far, especially considering that many pundits had the Jets as one of the top two or three teams in the AFC. You have to wonder just how long fans and media will wait before they really start calling for Sanchez's head. The thing is, what options do the Jets have? Backup QB Mark Brunell is not what I would call a viable option.
Life is not much better for the NY Giants, who faced Philadelphia's backup QB Vince Young, who turned the football over on 3 INTs, yet they could still not get a win, going down 17-10 because the run game did absolutely nothing to help QB Eli Manning. And seriously, what genius on the sideline thought it would be okay to kick the football to DeSean Jackson? We've seen what Jackson does at MetLife Stadium - yeah, I'm talking about that tough day to be a Giants fan, the so-called Miracle and the Meadowlands - and surely that body of work is enough to convince Giants coaches to instruct their punter/kicker to hoof the pigskin well out of bounds. It's an incredibly frustrating time to be a Giants fan, and with Green Bay and New Orleans plus games against Dallas and Washington to come down the stretch, it's very likely that Big Blue might be watching from the sidelines come playoff time.
Wow, are the wheels falling off the Buffalo Bills Bandwagon, or what? It seems like we were all on board just a few weeks ago and now we're jumping off like rats from a sinking ship, because the Bills were spanked last week by Dallas and this week something similar happened at the hands of...wait for it...the Miami Dolphins. Yeah, the 2-win Dolphins team went and opened a can on what we thought was a pretty good Bills team. It's a shame to see it falling apart so quickly.
Wow, are the wheels falling off the Buffalo Bills Bandwagon, or what? It seems like we were all on board just a few weeks ago and now we're jumping off like rats from a sinking ship, because the Bills were spanked last week by Dallas and this week something similar happened at the hands of...wait for it...the Miami Dolphins. Yeah, the 2-win Dolphins team went and opened a can on what we thought was a pretty good Bills team. It's a shame to see it falling apart so quickly.
The wheels might be turning again on the Detroit Lions Bandwagon. They did their usual second-half comeback thing on Sunday, roaring home from seventeen points behind against Cam Newton and the Carolina Hurricanes on the back of QB Matthew Stafford's 5 touchdown/355 yard game. That comeback after the Lions inexplicably turned the football over on the first three possessions of the game. Watching the game, I couldn't help but wonder how many of the Detroit players were already thinking ahead to Thursday's monster Thanksgiving game against NFC north rivals, the undefeated and defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers. Finally, we'll see a meaningful Thanksgiving game from the Motor City.
Staying in the NFC North, and it's a shame to hear that Chicago QB Jay Cutler broke the thumb on his throwing arm and will be out 6-8 weeks. Disastrous timing for the Bears, who have played brilliant football over the last few weeks and looked to be serious NFC contenders. Now, we get to see if backup Caleb Hanie, the guy who came in and almost led the Bears over the Packers in the NFC Championship Game, is a one-hit wonder or a legitimate stud. He hasn't played a meaningful NFL snap aside from those late in the NFC Championship. I guess the good news for the Bears is their defense, lead by the fearless and fearsome Brian Urlacher, is playing lights-out, and they can always have RB Matt Forte run more than he already does to lighten Hanie's load. Interesting few weeks coming up in the Windy City.
The San Francisco 49ers are 9-1 and could possibly wrap up the AFC West title next weekend. For anyone who still doubts that Jim Harbaugh's team is for real...well, we should get a better indication of their prowess after Thursday night, in the Harbaugh Bowl. That's right, the Niners take on the Baltimore Ravens. Jim Harbaugh
Monday, November 21, 2011
NCAA College Football 2011: Week Twelve Review
Another week, another Top 5 BCS team defeated by an unranked opponent. It was Texas Tech getting Oklahoma a few weeks ago and Texas Christian topping Boise State last Saturday. This week, after a classic comeback, the Iowa State Cyclones, down 24-7 staged an impressive and improbable rally for a 37-31 2OT victory against Oklahoma State. The Cowboys never looked quite right, even when they had a lead. They turned the football over 5 times - QB Brandon Weeden's Heisman campaign fell apart with three INTs to take the gloss off of a 476-yard/3 TD effort - and allowed a Cyclones offense with no real world-beater to claw back into a game they probably, in terms of roster talent, had no serious business being in. It was a gutsy victory that won't soon be forgotten by either Cyclone Nation or disappointed OSU Cowboy fans.
Speaking of gutsy, I can't remember being more proud of a USC football team since QB Matt Barkley's last-minute drive to beat Ohio State in Columbus in his freshman year. The Trojans' 38-35 victory against Oregon in Eugene - the Trojans were 15-point underdogs - wasn't without it's nervous moments, but the end result was a famous win that might just have signalled another swing in Pac-12 domination. Oregon took over from USC as the team to beat for a few years, but, here's hoping, we're seeing things turn back around. Barkley was sensational, and the defense really stood up to be counted after giving up about 600 yards each of the last two games against Oregon. This was a triumph for Monte Kiffin's unit. With a rising defense and an offense full of weapons, imagine what the Men of Troy can accomplish with Barkley if he returns next year. And here's hoping he will!
As Brandon Weeden's Heisman campaign stalled, the new name, the new favourite, should be Baylor QB Robert Griffin III. His last-minute drive to help Baylor to a 45-38 stunner of the Oklahoma Sooners was exactly the sort of 'Heisman Moment' that voters are looking for. After being an early favourite, RG-3 fell off the pace a little through the middle of the season, but with other candidates falling all around him, Griffin has come roaring back. Saturday night, he passed for a school record 479 yards and 4 TDs to once more stun the college football world. A special win for the oft-maligned Bears.
How quickly things change. On Thursday night, Oklahoma were anticipating facing off against an undefeated Oklahoma State in the Bedlam Game next week. A victory for the Sooners would perhaps stamp their ticket to the BCS National Championship Game as the best one-loss team in the country. It was a feasible proposition; stop that Cowboy offense and you're doing pretty well. Now, the Sooners are a two-loss team, with Bob Stoops destined to answer some tough questions this week, and Oklahoma State's perfect season is in tatters, too. Suddenly the Bedlam Game isn't anywhere near as important on a national stage. Three days is a long time in college football.
Another week, another NCAA record for Houston Cougars QB Case Keenum. During the Cougars 37-7 victory vs. Southern Methodist, Keenum became the Football Bowl Subdivision career leader for completions, passing Texas Tech's Graham Harrell. The Heisman candidate also joined Hawaii's Timmy Chang after notching up 4,000 yards passing in three seasons. He also tied Chang's record for number of 300-yard games, now at 36. Huge game for the Coogs vs. Tulsa next week as their quest for a BCS at-large bid continues.
Michigan's resurgence continues and it's a great thing for college football. For the first time in many weeks, QB Denard Robinson looked solid and comfortable out there. He threw the football as well as he ran it, and directed a 45-point offensive demolition of what we'd all thought was a pretty reasonable Nebraska defense. On the flip side, the defence, universally ridiculed this time last year, kept the Cornhusker offense, led by QB Taylor Martinez, to 17 points. Though they will not make the Big Ten Championship Game, a win next week vs. Ohio State keeps the Wolverines on track for an at-large BCS Bowl bid. Things are looking up in Ann Arbor.
Congratulations to Tom Bradley and Penn State who won their first game of the post-Joe Paterno era, doing it with solid defense, as they have all year. Imagine if their offense was as good? That would be one heck of a team. Kudos to the players, whose lives have been tipped upside down over the last few weeks. Going on the road to Columbus and getting a win against Ohio State was the perfect way to put another difficult week behind them. Wisconsin vs. Penn State next weekend is going to be very interesting.
So much tragedy in college football at the moment. The Penn State sexual abuse scandal seems to worsen each day. On Friday came the news of the plane crash that killed members of the Oklahoma State female basketball coaching staff after a recruiting visit, and there was the horrible situation in Yale, where a truck drove into a group of tailgaters, killing one and hitting two others. Football seems so inconsequential in the face of all that. But it's a nice release, at the same time.
Best BCS news of the weekend? The way seems a little clearer now for an Louisiana State vs. Alabama BCS National Championship Game. Of course, there's two weeks of football left to be played, and if the last few weeks are anything to go by, plenty could change.
As far as the new BCS
Speaking of gutsy, I can't remember being more proud of a USC football team since QB Matt Barkley's last-minute drive to beat Ohio State in Columbus in his freshman year. The Trojans' 38-35 victory against Oregon in Eugene - the Trojans were 15-point underdogs - wasn't without it's nervous moments, but the end result was a famous win that might just have signalled another swing in Pac-12 domination. Oregon took over from USC as the team to beat for a few years, but, here's hoping, we're seeing things turn back around. Barkley was sensational, and the defense really stood up to be counted after giving up about 600 yards each of the last two games against Oregon. This was a triumph for Monte Kiffin's unit. With a rising defense and an offense full of weapons, imagine what the Men of Troy can accomplish with Barkley if he returns next year. And here's hoping he will!
As Brandon Weeden's Heisman campaign stalled, the new name, the new favourite, should be Baylor QB Robert Griffin III. His last-minute drive to help Baylor to a 45-38 stunner of the Oklahoma Sooners was exactly the sort of 'Heisman Moment' that voters are looking for. After being an early favourite, RG-3 fell off the pace a little through the middle of the season, but with other candidates falling all around him, Griffin has come roaring back. Saturday night, he passed for a school record 479 yards and 4 TDs to once more stun the college football world. A special win for the oft-maligned Bears.
How quickly things change. On Thursday night, Oklahoma were anticipating facing off against an undefeated Oklahoma State in the Bedlam Game next week. A victory for the Sooners would perhaps stamp their ticket to the BCS National Championship Game as the best one-loss team in the country. It was a feasible proposition; stop that Cowboy offense and you're doing pretty well. Now, the Sooners are a two-loss team, with Bob Stoops destined to answer some tough questions this week, and Oklahoma State's perfect season is in tatters, too. Suddenly the Bedlam Game isn't anywhere near as important on a national stage. Three days is a long time in college football.
Another week, another NCAA record for Houston Cougars QB Case Keenum. During the Cougars 37-7 victory vs. Southern Methodist, Keenum became the Football Bowl Subdivision career leader for completions, passing Texas Tech's Graham Harrell. The Heisman candidate also joined Hawaii's Timmy Chang after notching up 4,000 yards passing in three seasons. He also tied Chang's record for number of 300-yard games, now at 36. Huge game for the Coogs vs. Tulsa next week as their quest for a BCS at-large bid continues.
Michigan's resurgence continues and it's a great thing for college football. For the first time in many weeks, QB Denard Robinson looked solid and comfortable out there. He threw the football as well as he ran it, and directed a 45-point offensive demolition of what we'd all thought was a pretty reasonable Nebraska defense. On the flip side, the defence, universally ridiculed this time last year, kept the Cornhusker offense, led by QB Taylor Martinez, to 17 points. Though they will not make the Big Ten Championship Game, a win next week vs. Ohio State keeps the Wolverines on track for an at-large BCS Bowl bid. Things are looking up in Ann Arbor.
Congratulations to Tom Bradley and Penn State who won their first game of the post-Joe Paterno era, doing it with solid defense, as they have all year. Imagine if their offense was as good? That would be one heck of a team. Kudos to the players, whose lives have been tipped upside down over the last few weeks. Going on the road to Columbus and getting a win against Ohio State was the perfect way to put another difficult week behind them. Wisconsin vs. Penn State next weekend is going to be very interesting.
So much tragedy in college football at the moment. The Penn State sexual abuse scandal seems to worsen each day. On Friday came the news of the plane crash that killed members of the Oklahoma State female basketball coaching staff after a recruiting visit, and there was the horrible situation in Yale, where a truck drove into a group of tailgaters, killing one and hitting two others. Football seems so inconsequential in the face of all that. But it's a nice release, at the same time.
Best BCS news of the weekend? The way seems a little clearer now for an Louisiana State vs. Alabama BCS National Championship Game. Of course, there's two weeks of football left to be played, and if the last few weeks are anything to go by, plenty could change.
As far as the new BCS
Sunday, November 20, 2011
NCAA College Football 2011: The Heisman Case for Case
That's right, an entire blog devoted to Houston Cougars QB Case Keenum. Now that Stanford and Boise State have lost, effectively eliminating- and unjustly, I might say, though that is a subject for another blog entry entirely - former Heisman front runners Andrew Luck and Kellen Moore, the college football world turns to new favourites, new picks for the sport's greatest individual honour.
Look no further than Case Keenum, record-smashing quarterback of the No. 11 Houston Cougars. Let's examine his stats thus far:
Look no further than Case Keenum, record-smashing quarterback of the No. 11 Houston Cougars. Let's examine his stats thus far:
September 03 vs. UCLA
30-40, 310 yards and 2 TDs. QB Rating: 113.15. Completion Percentage: 75
7 rushes, 21 yards.
September 10 at North Texas
26-41, 458 yards and 5 TDs. QB Rating: 141.1. Completion Percentage: 63.4
6 rushes, 1 yard,
September 17 at Louisiana State
25-40, 351 yards, 3 TDs and 1 INT. QB Rating: 94.9. Completion Percentage: 62.5
5 rushes, 42 yards.
September 24 vs. Georgia State
29-34, 415 yards and 2 TDs. QB Rating: 137.1. Completion Percentage: 85.3
3 rushes, 22 yards
September 29 at UTEP
30-46, 471 yards and 2 TDs. QB Rating: 113.6. Completion Percentage: 65.2
1 rush, 18 yards
October 08 vs. East Carolina
30-37, 304 yards and 2 TDs. QB Rating: 127.9. Completion Percentage: 81.1
2 rushes, 24 yards
October 22 vs. Marshall
24-28, 376 yards and 6 TDs. QB Rating: 158.3. Completion Percentage: 85.7
2 rushes, 16 yards
October 27 vs. Rice
24-37, 534 yards, 9 TDs and 1 INT. QB Rating: 136.5. Completion Percentage: 64.9
4 rushes, 32 yards
November 05 at UAB
39-44, 407 yards and 2 TDs. QB Rating: 120.4. Completion Percentage: 88.6
2 rushes, 2 yards, 2 TDs
November 10 at Rice
22-29, 325 yards and 3 TDs. QB Rating 146.5. Completion Percentage: 75.9
5 rushes, 8 yards.
Season To Date:
279-376, 3951 yards, 37 TDs, 3 INTs. QB Rating: 137.2. Completion Percentage: 74.2
37 rushes, 35 yards and 2 TDs (totalled to include yards lost from sacks)
Madden-like numbers. So far this season, Keenum has become the NCAA leader in total offense (18,434), passing touchdowns (144) and passing yards (17,537) and can still attain the all-time completion record (1,404) with seven more, and needs one more 300-yard passing game to tie former Hawaii quarterback Timmy Chang’s incredible record of 36. Also, he's only been sacked ten times.
Strength of schedule is an issue, but it's the same issue that has befallen Kellen Moore at Boise State for so many years. Moore's managed to get past it with spectacular play. I don't care who a guy plays, because if he's dropping the football into guys right between the numbers like Keenum has been doing, there's no defender on this earth that can stop something like that. Yet the stigma of playing in Conference USA has hurt Keenum.
The Cougars remain undefeated and now, with Boise State's BCS demise, may be in line for a BCS berth. Remember when Hawaii went undefeated in 2007? Their QB Colt Brennan, whose records have been bettered by Keenum, went to New York City as a Heisman finalist. Really, with numbers like these and still games to come, an invite to the final ceremony is the least that Keenum deserves.
Keenum for Heisman
November 10 at Rice
22-29, 325 yards and 3 TDs. QB Rating 146.5. Completion Percentage: 75.9
5 rushes, 8 yards.
Season To Date:
279-376, 3951 yards, 37 TDs, 3 INTs. QB Rating: 137.2. Completion Percentage: 74.2
37 rushes, 35 yards and 2 TDs (totalled to include yards lost from sacks)
Madden-like numbers. So far this season, Keenum has become the NCAA leader in total offense (18,434), passing touchdowns (144) and passing yards (17,537) and can still attain the all-time completion record (1,404) with seven more, and needs one more 300-yard passing game to tie former Hawaii quarterback Timmy Chang’s incredible record of 36. Also, he's only been sacked ten times.
Strength of schedule is an issue, but it's the same issue that has befallen Kellen Moore at Boise State for so many years. Moore's managed to get past it with spectacular play. I don't care who a guy plays, because if he's dropping the football into guys right between the numbers like Keenum has been doing, there's no defender on this earth that can stop something like that. Yet the stigma of playing in Conference USA has hurt Keenum.
The Cougars remain undefeated and now, with Boise State's BCS demise, may be in line for a BCS berth. Remember when Hawaii went undefeated in 2007? Their QB Colt Brennan, whose records have been bettered by Keenum, went to New York City as a Heisman finalist. Really, with numbers like these and still games to come, an invite to the final ceremony is the least that Keenum deserves.
Keenum for Heisman
Thursday, November 17, 2011
NCAA College Football 2011: Week Twelve Australian TV Guide
The season is almost done. GameDay is visiting the University of Houston, presumably to fete it's record-setting quarterback Case Keenum, and there is good action from the ACC, Big Ten and Big XII across the weekend.
All times AEDT
Friday 17 November
North Carolina vs. No. 9 Virginia Tech (12.00pm; ESPN/ESPN2-HD)
Saturday 18 November
College Football Live (7.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 2 Oklahoma State vs. Iowa State (12.00pm; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
Sunday 19 November
College GameDay - Houston, Texas (1.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 17 Nebraska vs. No. 20 Michigan (4.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
College Football Scoreboard (7.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 21 Penn State vs. Ohio State (7.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
College Football Scoreboard (10.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 1 Louisiana State vs. Mississippi (11.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
No. 18 Southern California vs. No. 4 Oregon (12.00pm; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
College Football Scoreboard (2.00pm; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
California vs. No. 8 Stanford (2.15pm; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
NFL 2011: Week Ten Review
Perfection is a hard thing to attain, especially in the oft-fickle National Football League, but it's a word that's following the Green Bay Packers around. Maybe now, after ten weeks, and with their record at 10-0, the word is more stalking than following. Talk of a perfect season - remember how well that turned out for the New England Patriots on that last night, Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Arizona - will intensify this week, after the Packers put the cleaners through the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night. The big thing this game wasn't so much the prolific Packer offense but their defense, which played lights-out. Clay Matthews, Charles Woodson, AJ Hawk, they all looked like their 2010 selves, rather than the unit that's given up yards hand over fist in 2011. If they get their defense playing consistently as they played on Monday night, watch out!
The San Francisco 49ers are for real. Jim Harbaugh has a good football team. Their victory against a good Giants team was no fluke, and it proves that their earlier victories weren't flukes. By far and away, this is the best team in the NFC West and they might just be the second-best team in the NFC. Much-maligned QB Alex Smith is having a surprisingly good season, doing enough not to lose games, making big throws when he has to, and the Niners running game led by Frank Gore has been incredible, the foundation of their offense. The status of Gore, injured last week, will be important going down the stretch, but it looks as though Kendall Hunter could at least take up some of the slack.
And so to another review of Tim Tebow's performance. Denver won and are 3-1 with Tebow as a starting QB, but I still don't buy that he's the second coming of John Elway. Tebow completed only two passes this week in a win over a not-very-good Kansas City team, got incredibly lucky - thanks to an onside kick - against Miami. Sure, Tebow cut Oakland to shreds on the ground, but there's only going to be so long before teams start to figure out this option offense and shut it down. Let's also not forget that they were smashed by a reasonably good team in Detroit. I'd like to see Tebow play consistently and win vs. good teams - say, Green Bay or Pittsburgh - before I anoint him the second coming of Elway.
Quarterback troubles in the league see Matt Leinart poised to direct the Houston Texans offense after starting QB Matt Schaub sustained foot injury that will have him out for the rest of the season. Disastrous blow for the Texans, who seem poised to eclipse the Indianapolis Colts shadow and win the AFC South. A potentially perfect situation for Leinart, who has enough weapons if he can make the throws, and a good running back in Arian Foster, to impress and silence some doubters. As a USC fan, really hoping Leinart impresses.
A similar situation in Kansas City, where an injury to the throwing hand of QB Matt Cassel seems to have sidelined him - if you believe the rumours - for the rest of the season. Thus, Tyler Palko, a rookie starter, gets the start, his first NFL start. You can't imagine that things could get any worse for the Chiefs this year. They've hardly won a game, and have lost star RB Jamaal Charles, TE Tony Moeaki as well as a slew of vital defensive players and now Cassel, too. Fans in KC will be praying for Season 2012. The only good news is that Palko's first start comes against the weak pass defense of New England, on Monday night. If there's one team you want to face first-up in the league this year as a starting QB, it's the Patriots.
Glad I'm not a NY Jets fan because the erratic and sometimes downright dumb play of QB Mark Sanchez would be getting right on my nerves. For a third-year quarterback who has started since his rookie year, you think he would be taking more of the offensive load for the Jets, yet it seems like the play callers in New York are almost afraid to give him much more than a few simple plans and rely, instead, on RB Shonn Greene to get the yardage, with LaDanian Tomlinson backing him up. I don't know if Sanchez has exactly regressed from this point last year but there's no noticeable improvement, either.
Devin Hester. What more needs to be said? This man is electric in the special teams game and it makes me wonder why teams ever kick to this guy anymore. I mean, usually they don't, usually punters and kickers angle the ball well away or kick it way out of bounds, but occasionally someone takes a chance, does the dumb thing, and Hester makes them pay for their stupidity. The big question is, can Hester, a middle-of-the-road receiver, get to Canton purely as a special teams player?
The wheels have really fallen off the now-empty Philadelphia bandwagon. The Eagles are a mess and now we hear stories of DeSean Jackson acting childishly again, resulting in him being benched for last week's game. Seriously, what is going on with this team? Michael Vick hasn't looked like the same player he was last year - typically, now that he's my starting fantasy QB - and the rest of the offense is the same. Head Coach Andy Reid keeps saying that they have to get better. It's his stock standard line now, that and talk about executing. The Eagles are both not executing and not getting any better. What an epic tumble it's been for the team many picked to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.
The San Francisco 49ers are for real. Jim Harbaugh has a good football team. Their victory against a good Giants team was no fluke, and it proves that their earlier victories weren't flukes. By far and away, this is the best team in the NFC West and they might just be the second-best team in the NFC. Much-maligned QB Alex Smith is having a surprisingly good season, doing enough not to lose games, making big throws when he has to, and the Niners running game led by Frank Gore has been incredible, the foundation of their offense. The status of Gore, injured last week, will be important going down the stretch, but it looks as though Kendall Hunter could at least take up some of the slack.
And so to another review of Tim Tebow's performance. Denver won and are 3-1 with Tebow as a starting QB, but I still don't buy that he's the second coming of John Elway. Tebow completed only two passes this week in a win over a not-very-good Kansas City team, got incredibly lucky - thanks to an onside kick - against Miami. Sure, Tebow cut Oakland to shreds on the ground, but there's only going to be so long before teams start to figure out this option offense and shut it down. Let's also not forget that they were smashed by a reasonably good team in Detroit. I'd like to see Tebow play consistently and win vs. good teams - say, Green Bay or Pittsburgh - before I anoint him the second coming of Elway.
Quarterback troubles in the league see Matt Leinart poised to direct the Houston Texans offense after starting QB Matt Schaub sustained foot injury that will have him out for the rest of the season. Disastrous blow for the Texans, who seem poised to eclipse the Indianapolis Colts shadow and win the AFC South. A potentially perfect situation for Leinart, who has enough weapons if he can make the throws, and a good running back in Arian Foster, to impress and silence some doubters. As a USC fan, really hoping Leinart impresses.
A similar situation in Kansas City, where an injury to the throwing hand of QB Matt Cassel seems to have sidelined him - if you believe the rumours - for the rest of the season. Thus, Tyler Palko, a rookie starter, gets the start, his first NFL start. You can't imagine that things could get any worse for the Chiefs this year. They've hardly won a game, and have lost star RB Jamaal Charles, TE Tony Moeaki as well as a slew of vital defensive players and now Cassel, too. Fans in KC will be praying for Season 2012. The only good news is that Palko's first start comes against the weak pass defense of New England, on Monday night. If there's one team you want to face first-up in the league this year as a starting QB, it's the Patriots.
Glad I'm not a NY Jets fan because the erratic and sometimes downright dumb play of QB Mark Sanchez would be getting right on my nerves. For a third-year quarterback who has started since his rookie year, you think he would be taking more of the offensive load for the Jets, yet it seems like the play callers in New York are almost afraid to give him much more than a few simple plans and rely, instead, on RB Shonn Greene to get the yardage, with LaDanian Tomlinson backing him up. I don't know if Sanchez has exactly regressed from this point last year but there's no noticeable improvement, either.
Devin Hester. What more needs to be said? This man is electric in the special teams game and it makes me wonder why teams ever kick to this guy anymore. I mean, usually they don't, usually punters and kickers angle the ball well away or kick it way out of bounds, but occasionally someone takes a chance, does the dumb thing, and Hester makes them pay for their stupidity. The big question is, can Hester, a middle-of-the-road receiver, get to Canton purely as a special teams player?
The wheels have really fallen off the now-empty Philadelphia bandwagon. The Eagles are a mess and now we hear stories of DeSean Jackson acting childishly again, resulting in him being benched for last week's game. Seriously, what is going on with this team? Michael Vick hasn't looked like the same player he was last year - typically, now that he's my starting fantasy QB - and the rest of the offense is the same. Head Coach Andy Reid keeps saying that they have to get better. It's his stock standard line now, that and talk about executing. The Eagles are both not executing and not getting any better. What an epic tumble it's been for the team many picked to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.
Monday, November 14, 2011
NCAA College Football 2011: Week Eleven Review
Another week, and another BCS Top Ten team falling to an unranked opponent. Boise State, previously sitting at No. 5, lost a heart-breaker to Texas Christian in one of the games of the season. Disastrously for Boise State, still defintel;y amongst the best teams in the country - except, perhaps, their Special Teams unit - will not even have the consolation prize of winning their inaugural Mountain West Conference championship. With TCU's victory, they need only beat lowly UNLV and Colorado State to claim another MWC crown. Talk about a completed fall from grace for Boise, compounded by the likelihood that QB Kellen Moore, despite being the winningest quarterback in NCAA history, won't figure when the Heisman Trophy finalists are announced.
Oregon made big plays and made them early, and were surprisingly easy winners against Stanford. I personally was equal parts amazed and shocked by how easy the Ducks, playing in front of a raucous pro-Cardinal crowd at Stanford, dispatched the Cardinal. They showed up every single one of the weaknesses that pundits have said, week in and week out, might become Stanford's undoing. And they were. It's hard to see Andrew Luck winning the Heisman now.
Unlike Boise and Stanford, Oklahoma State had no problems this weekend, trouncing Texas Tech 66-6 in Lubbock, and making a bad season that much worse for the Red Raiders. How on earth that team ever managed to beat the Oklahoma Sooners in Norman is beyond me. Everything that the Red Raiders could've done wrong on Saturday afternoon, they did. Special teams, offense, defense. We saw a football team that imploded.
Saturday's USC vs. Oregon game looms as a big one after Oregon's successes against Stanford and after USC's defense, maligned all last year and for much of this year, completely shut down QB Keith Price and the Washington Huskies, scoring a dominating win inside the Coliseum, spearheaded by the continued emergence of RB Curtis McNeal. QB Matt Barkley barely had to lift a finger. In a way, it was revenge for USC's last-second loss to Washington last year in Seattle. This is a pretty good Trojan football team. I'm quietly confident they can mount at least some sort of challenge against the Ducks.
At the end of a tough week at Penn State, you get the feeling that, at least to a small extent, the healing has begun. To a man, the Nittany Lions players gave a valiant effort, nearly rallying from a 17 point deficit to record what would have been an incredible victory vs. Nebraska. Instead, the post-Joe Paterno era began with a loss, and it was incredibly strange not to see Joe Pa there stalking the sidelines. Honestly, I think it'll be strange for a while to come.
Oregon might be the best one-loss team in America. They put the cleaners through Stanford while Alabama had a so-so night in their 24-7 victory vs. Mississippi State. If things continue as they are - no given in a crazy season thus far - we may see a rematch of the season-opening game at Cowboys Stadium, the Ducks and the Bayou Bengals of LSU. Oregon's offense against LSU's defense would be another intriguing match-up. Traditionally, of course, spread offenses and option offenses are sniffed out and shut down by teams when they have 3-4 weeks to prepare. Look at what LSU did the first time around to the Ducks.
Does anyone wonder whether Oklahoma State's red-hot offense could have any success against the LSU defense? It's an intriguing question that might get answered in the BCS National Championship Game in New Orleans in January. I know how good the OSU offense is, but that LSU secondary is NFL-caliber and I can't help but think QB Brandon Weeden will have trouble making big plays with guys like Tyrann Mathieu lurking in the defensive backfield. I really hope we get to see what happens. LSU vs. Oklahoma State for all the marbles would be very interesting.
Kudos to Kansas State QB Colin Klein, who proved that he can throw the ball as well as he can run it. In a crazy 53-53 4-overtime game against the Aggies of Texas A&M, the K-State signal caller passed for a career best 281 yards (17-27, 1 TD and 1 INT) and ran for a further 103 yards and 5 TDs. K-State vs. Texas A&M was one of the games of the year.
With Boise State's loss, the way is open to a BCS bowl for the Houston Cougars, who blasted Tulane 73-17 on Thursday night. This team reminds me a lot of the 2007 Hawaii Warriors, who got a Sugar Bowl berth. The Cougars' star QB Case Keenum had a somewhat pedestrian night - by his lofty standards, anyway - going 22-29 for 325 yards and 3 TDs. Houston did their damage on the ground, rushing for 292 yards. Charles Sims had 207 of those on 10 carries, with 2 scores.
Oregon made big plays and made them early, and were surprisingly easy winners against Stanford. I personally was equal parts amazed and shocked by how easy the Ducks, playing in front of a raucous pro-Cardinal crowd at Stanford, dispatched the Cardinal. They showed up every single one of the weaknesses that pundits have said, week in and week out, might become Stanford's undoing. And they were. It's hard to see Andrew Luck winning the Heisman now.
Unlike Boise and Stanford, Oklahoma State had no problems this weekend, trouncing Texas Tech 66-6 in Lubbock, and making a bad season that much worse for the Red Raiders. How on earth that team ever managed to beat the Oklahoma Sooners in Norman is beyond me. Everything that the Red Raiders could've done wrong on Saturday afternoon, they did. Special teams, offense, defense. We saw a football team that imploded.
Saturday's USC vs. Oregon game looms as a big one after Oregon's successes against Stanford and after USC's defense, maligned all last year and for much of this year, completely shut down QB Keith Price and the Washington Huskies, scoring a dominating win inside the Coliseum, spearheaded by the continued emergence of RB Curtis McNeal. QB Matt Barkley barely had to lift a finger. In a way, it was revenge for USC's last-second loss to Washington last year in Seattle. This is a pretty good Trojan football team. I'm quietly confident they can mount at least some sort of challenge against the Ducks.
At the end of a tough week at Penn State, you get the feeling that, at least to a small extent, the healing has begun. To a man, the Nittany Lions players gave a valiant effort, nearly rallying from a 17 point deficit to record what would have been an incredible victory vs. Nebraska. Instead, the post-Joe Paterno era began with a loss, and it was incredibly strange not to see Joe Pa there stalking the sidelines. Honestly, I think it'll be strange for a while to come.
Oregon might be the best one-loss team in America. They put the cleaners through Stanford while Alabama had a so-so night in their 24-7 victory vs. Mississippi State. If things continue as they are - no given in a crazy season thus far - we may see a rematch of the season-opening game at Cowboys Stadium, the Ducks and the Bayou Bengals of LSU. Oregon's offense against LSU's defense would be another intriguing match-up. Traditionally, of course, spread offenses and option offenses are sniffed out and shut down by teams when they have 3-4 weeks to prepare. Look at what LSU did the first time around to the Ducks.
Does anyone wonder whether Oklahoma State's red-hot offense could have any success against the LSU defense? It's an intriguing question that might get answered in the BCS National Championship Game in New Orleans in January. I know how good the OSU offense is, but that LSU secondary is NFL-caliber and I can't help but think QB Brandon Weeden will have trouble making big plays with guys like Tyrann Mathieu lurking in the defensive backfield. I really hope we get to see what happens. LSU vs. Oklahoma State for all the marbles would be very interesting.
Kudos to Kansas State QB Colin Klein, who proved that he can throw the ball as well as he can run it. In a crazy 53-53 4-overtime game against the Aggies of Texas A&M, the K-State signal caller passed for a career best 281 yards (17-27, 1 TD and 1 INT) and ran for a further 103 yards and 5 TDs. K-State vs. Texas A&M was one of the games of the year.
With Boise State's loss, the way is open to a BCS bowl for the Houston Cougars, who blasted Tulane 73-17 on Thursday night. This team reminds me a lot of the 2007 Hawaii Warriors, who got a Sugar Bowl berth. The Cougars' star QB Case Keenum had a somewhat pedestrian night - by his lofty standards, anyway - going 22-29 for 325 yards and 3 TDs. Houston did their damage on the ground, rushing for 292 yards. Charles Sims had 207 of those on 10 carries, with 2 scores.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
NHL 2011-12: Early Season Review
A few of my random thoughts and observations a month-and-a-bit into the 2011-12 National Hockey League season:
For a team without it's best player - Sidney Crosby - since the closing months of last season, and it's second-best player - Evgeni Malkin - for a fair amount of time to open this campaign, the Pittsburgh Penguins aren't slowing down. It's a good hockey team now. Imagine how much better it is when Crosby gets back?
Detroit's fast start and subsequent collapse has been one of the big stories in the West. You have to assume that it's just a funk that the Red Wings are going through. I mean, with a roster that features Nicklas Lidstrom, Henrik Zetterberg, Johann Franzen and Pavel Datsyuk, they aren't going to be bad forever. Playoff appearances are a part of the Wings' DNA. It's a long season. They'll figure it out.
Boston Bruins fans chant "Thank you, Kessel," whenever Tyler Seguin scores goals against the Maple Leafs, who gave up the pick that snared Seguin to Boston in the famous Kessel trade. Lately, that chant's been heard a lot. Seguin has already scored his first hat trick - against Toronto, naturally - and looks like being a superstar of the game for a long time to come. Playing with the likes of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci certainly won't harm the kid's development!
Crosby Watch has taken on a life of it's own. I've lost count of the number of articles and tweets I've read promising that Crosby will be "back on the ice this week" yet still the Pens captain remains on the sidelines. Concussion is not an exact science, of course, and conditions can apparently change rapidly from day-to-day. The fact is, not even the doctors looking at Sid on a daily basis are completely certain of his comeback date. In the mean time, let the media circus begin!
Edmonton's young line of Jordan Eberle - Taylor Hall - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is scaring people all over hockey. And with good reason. Nugent-Hopkins' hat trick vs. Vancouver in the Oil's losing effort was spectacular stuff. These three kids, they have all the moves, and probably make each other better, too. Just think, as good as they are now, these are still kids with lots to learn about life in the National Hockey League. Oh yeah, they're going to get better!
Dallas are best in the West? Yeah, it felt weird writing that, but the Stars are leading the Western Conference right now and they're playing good hockey. Jamie Benn, Loui Eriksson and Kari Lehtonen are all playing out of their skins. Who said the Stars needed Brad Richards to create offense?
Can't believe that Columbus - a league-worst 2-11-1 at time of typing - weren't the first team to jettison their coach in Season 2011. Scott Arniel certainly deserves to be gone, but St Louis got in first, firing their head coach, the unfortunate Davis Payne. Unfortunate because Payne was a guy who had his team just one game below .500, had some key injuries and hadn't had many home games. That's a tough pill to swallow. The Blues must've been ultra-desperate to get Ken Hitchcock.
What Columbus needs to do immediately and without much more thought on the matter is sack their coach and the GM. The league's second-highest payroll has done nothing but look horrible since the outset. Whatever sort of a team they've put together, it's backfired spectacularly, and not many people saw it coming. So much for a new era in C-Bus. It's looking worse than ever before for pro hockey in Ohio.
Fantastic to have the Winnipeg Jets back in hockey. The league really is a better place for having a classic franchise name back and skating, as compared to a franchise - the Atlanta Thrashers - going absolutely nowhere quickly. The big different between Atlanta and Winnipeg is the fan support. It's overwhelming to say the least. That first home game that the Jets ended up losing to Montreal, you'd swear the team had won the game and the Stanley Cup the way the home fans cheered their team. They were people just glad to have top-line hockey back in their neighnbourhood, and it was good to see.
Also fantastic is hearing Dave Strader, one of the most criminally-under rated hockey play-by-play voices in the world, calling games weekly for VERSUS, whose coverage has the sharp look of NBC, and whose name will switch to the NBC Sports Network on January 2. The combination of Strader and Brian Engblom is perfect. Now, to get rid of Pierre McGuire...
For a team without it's best player - Sidney Crosby - since the closing months of last season, and it's second-best player - Evgeni Malkin - for a fair amount of time to open this campaign, the Pittsburgh Penguins aren't slowing down. It's a good hockey team now. Imagine how much better it is when Crosby gets back?
Detroit's fast start and subsequent collapse has been one of the big stories in the West. You have to assume that it's just a funk that the Red Wings are going through. I mean, with a roster that features Nicklas Lidstrom, Henrik Zetterberg, Johann Franzen and Pavel Datsyuk, they aren't going to be bad forever. Playoff appearances are a part of the Wings' DNA. It's a long season. They'll figure it out.
Boston Bruins fans chant "Thank you, Kessel," whenever Tyler Seguin scores goals against the Maple Leafs, who gave up the pick that snared Seguin to Boston in the famous Kessel trade. Lately, that chant's been heard a lot. Seguin has already scored his first hat trick - against Toronto, naturally - and looks like being a superstar of the game for a long time to come. Playing with the likes of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci certainly won't harm the kid's development!
Crosby Watch has taken on a life of it's own. I've lost count of the number of articles and tweets I've read promising that Crosby will be "back on the ice this week" yet still the Pens captain remains on the sidelines. Concussion is not an exact science, of course, and conditions can apparently change rapidly from day-to-day. The fact is, not even the doctors looking at Sid on a daily basis are completely certain of his comeback date. In the mean time, let the media circus begin!
Edmonton's young line of Jordan Eberle - Taylor Hall - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is scaring people all over hockey. And with good reason. Nugent-Hopkins' hat trick vs. Vancouver in the Oil's losing effort was spectacular stuff. These three kids, they have all the moves, and probably make each other better, too. Just think, as good as they are now, these are still kids with lots to learn about life in the National Hockey League. Oh yeah, they're going to get better!
Dallas are best in the West? Yeah, it felt weird writing that, but the Stars are leading the Western Conference right now and they're playing good hockey. Jamie Benn, Loui Eriksson and Kari Lehtonen are all playing out of their skins. Who said the Stars needed Brad Richards to create offense?
Can't believe that Columbus - a league-worst 2-11-1 at time of typing - weren't the first team to jettison their coach in Season 2011. Scott Arniel certainly deserves to be gone, but St Louis got in first, firing their head coach, the unfortunate Davis Payne. Unfortunate because Payne was a guy who had his team just one game below .500, had some key injuries and hadn't had many home games. That's a tough pill to swallow. The Blues must've been ultra-desperate to get Ken Hitchcock.
What Columbus needs to do immediately and without much more thought on the matter is sack their coach and the GM. The league's second-highest payroll has done nothing but look horrible since the outset. Whatever sort of a team they've put together, it's backfired spectacularly, and not many people saw it coming. So much for a new era in C-Bus. It's looking worse than ever before for pro hockey in Ohio.
Fantastic to have the Winnipeg Jets back in hockey. The league really is a better place for having a classic franchise name back and skating, as compared to a franchise - the Atlanta Thrashers - going absolutely nowhere quickly. The big different between Atlanta and Winnipeg is the fan support. It's overwhelming to say the least. That first home game that the Jets ended up losing to Montreal, you'd swear the team had won the game and the Stanley Cup the way the home fans cheered their team. They were people just glad to have top-line hockey back in their neighnbourhood, and it was good to see.
Also fantastic is hearing Dave Strader, one of the most criminally-under rated hockey play-by-play voices in the world, calling games weekly for VERSUS, whose coverage has the sharp look of NBC, and whose name will switch to the NBC Sports Network on January 2. The combination of Strader and Brian Engblom is perfect. Now, to get rid of Pierre McGuire...
Thursday, November 10, 2011
NCAA College Football 2011: Week Eleven Australian TV Guide
After a horrible week of off-field college news - including the fall of one of the sport's greatest eyes - it's nice to be able to lay out a list of good games this weekend. All eyes will, of course, be focused on Happy Valley on Sunday morning when the Nittany Lions play their first game in 46 years without Joe Paterno as head coach.
All times Australian AEDT
Friday 11 November
No. 10 Virginia Tech vs. No. 2 Georgia Tech (12.00pm; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
Saturday 12 November
South Florida vs. Syracuse (12.00pm; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
Sunday 13 November
College GameDay - Stanford (1.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 2 Oklahoma State vs. Texas Tech (4.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 12 Penn State vs. No. 19 Nebraska (4.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
College Football Scoreboard (7.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
College Football Scoreboard (7.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
Miami-FL vs. Florida State (7.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
College Football Scoreboard (10.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 4 Alabama vs. Mississippi State (11.45am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 3 Stanford vs. No. 6 Oregon (12.00pm; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
College Football Final (4.00pm; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
All times Australian AEDT
Friday 11 November
No. 10 Virginia Tech vs. No. 2 Georgia Tech (12.00pm; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
Saturday 12 November
South Florida vs. Syracuse (12.00pm; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
Sunday 13 November
College GameDay - Stanford (1.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 2 Oklahoma State vs. Texas Tech (4.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 12 Penn State vs. No. 19 Nebraska (4.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
College Football Scoreboard (7.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
College Football Scoreboard (7.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
Miami-FL vs. Florida State (7.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
College Football Scoreboard (10.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 4 Alabama vs. Mississippi State (11.45am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 3 Stanford vs. No. 6 Oregon (12.00pm; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
College Football Final (4.00pm; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
Penn State
Sadly, there is a horrible situation unfolding involving a Penn State coach and the sexual molestation of a number of young men on the campus at State College, Pennsylvania. This is the worst and most unimaginable occurrence at an education institution like Penn Sate, which has always, seemingly, been able to rise above scandal and cheating and NCAA infractions and investigations.
Now, something worse than any penalty ever handed out to SMU or USC, is occurring. And the most disastrous thing of all is not that a great coaching career has come to a grinding halt and may not even last the rest of this 2011 college football season, but that the praised and oft-imitated warm family environment at Penn State is now nothing but an illusion. Men who were looking to cover their own butts and, perhaps, the proverbial of their university are paying a deservedly high price now.
Given the horrible stories coming out of Penn State, football should take a back seat. You look at the situation and you imagine yourself as a parent and you think, 'Wow, Paterno is the most honorable guy in football and he has a good staff of people just like him, so I'll send my kid there to play football in Happy Valley because it's the best place for a young man to grow up and learn about life' and this happens.
The victims...I don't even know how you deal with something like this, and to have had this situation occur where one or more people at Penn State have only just barely discharged their legal responsibility, without doing more to help the kids and to make sure that there were support avenues is sickening, and anyone with even a shred of humanity inside themselves should be as angry as heck about this. We're talking about the total collapse of a safe environment for young and impressionable kids.
How is it even fathomable that Sandusky had an office at Penn State available to him until last week? Especially when you consider that there's evidence doing the rounds now that people at the university have known about this shocking set of circumstances since 1998. Yet still Paterno, the PSU coaches and the people who run the school and the Athletic Department have let Sandusky come on campus and potentially, knowing the allegations that have come before, putting more young men in harm's way because they are in a position where they may be alone with a man who is clearly capable of something like this. It turns the stomach.
It's a sad end for Paterno's legacy, certainly, but we should not let what has gone before cloud our judgement and condemnation of what is happening now, what he has allowed to happen. The fact of the matter is that Joe Paterno, as head coach of a football team - of a program whose coda is 'Success with Honour' - has made some big mistakes in the way he handled, or did not properly handle a situation that has likely damaged, perhaps irrevocably, the lives of however many young men - too many young men - end up coming forward to say they have been molested by Sandusky.
Alliances and allegiance aside, Paterno should have done more than he did. I daresay even Paterno knows and realises this now. It seems fashionable at times to beat up on a person undeserving. But, in this circumstance, Paterno deserves all the criticism that he is receiving. It's a shame, but it's also the truth. The legacy he had built up over so many years will be tainted. It seems unfair, but what was also unfair, what is dreadfully unfair in all of this, is that there are a group of young men out there who went to Penn State University to play football, and to grow up under the tutelage of a man revered as one of the greats in all of sports. They left, instead, with memories that will likely scar them for life.
Sure, it's sad that Paterno's blemish will be remembered for all time, that his career accomplishments will always come with an asterisk because of what has come out over the last five or six days. But it's a whole lot sadder that the lives of some young men have been torn apart and will probably never be the same again.
Now, something worse than any penalty ever handed out to SMU or USC, is occurring. And the most disastrous thing of all is not that a great coaching career has come to a grinding halt and may not even last the rest of this 2011 college football season, but that the praised and oft-imitated warm family environment at Penn State is now nothing but an illusion. Men who were looking to cover their own butts and, perhaps, the proverbial of their university are paying a deservedly high price now.
Given the horrible stories coming out of Penn State, football should take a back seat. You look at the situation and you imagine yourself as a parent and you think, 'Wow, Paterno is the most honorable guy in football and he has a good staff of people just like him, so I'll send my kid there to play football in Happy Valley because it's the best place for a young man to grow up and learn about life' and this happens.
The victims...I don't even know how you deal with something like this, and to have had this situation occur where one or more people at Penn State have only just barely discharged their legal responsibility, without doing more to help the kids and to make sure that there were support avenues is sickening, and anyone with even a shred of humanity inside themselves should be as angry as heck about this. We're talking about the total collapse of a safe environment for young and impressionable kids.
How is it even fathomable that Sandusky had an office at Penn State available to him until last week? Especially when you consider that there's evidence doing the rounds now that people at the university have known about this shocking set of circumstances since 1998. Yet still Paterno, the PSU coaches and the people who run the school and the Athletic Department have let Sandusky come on campus and potentially, knowing the allegations that have come before, putting more young men in harm's way because they are in a position where they may be alone with a man who is clearly capable of something like this. It turns the stomach.
It's a sad end for Paterno's legacy, certainly, but we should not let what has gone before cloud our judgement and condemnation of what is happening now, what he has allowed to happen. The fact of the matter is that Joe Paterno, as head coach of a football team - of a program whose coda is 'Success with Honour' - has made some big mistakes in the way he handled, or did not properly handle a situation that has likely damaged, perhaps irrevocably, the lives of however many young men - too many young men - end up coming forward to say they have been molested by Sandusky.
Alliances and allegiance aside, Paterno should have done more than he did. I daresay even Paterno knows and realises this now. It seems fashionable at times to beat up on a person undeserving. But, in this circumstance, Paterno deserves all the criticism that he is receiving. It's a shame, but it's also the truth. The legacy he had built up over so many years will be tainted. It seems unfair, but what was also unfair, what is dreadfully unfair in all of this, is that there are a group of young men out there who went to Penn State University to play football, and to grow up under the tutelage of a man revered as one of the greats in all of sports. They left, instead, with memories that will likely scar them for life.
Sure, it's sad that Paterno's blemish will be remembered for all time, that his career accomplishments will always come with an asterisk because of what has come out over the last five or six days. But it's a whole lot sadder that the lives of some young men have been torn apart and will probably never be the same again.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
NFL 2011: Week Nine Review
The Tim Tebow Saga continues. I wonder if we might see a sort of Rex Grossman-like season from the Denver Broncos QB. Remember how it was with Rex in Chicago during the Bears Super Bowl run of 2006-07? You never knew which Rex you were going to get on any given Sunday: the one who won games with his strong arm or the one who threw bad picks and fumbled the football. Last week, Tebow looked horrible. This week...not so bad. Good but not great. There's more to build on from this week's performance than last.
Very pleased with my Giants and their big win against New England in Foxboro. To be honest, I wasn't certain that Big Blue would be able to go to Gillette Stadium and come away with a win, but I'm glad they did. Eli Manning seems to be making a living out of destroying Patriots hopes late in games. He did it to great effect in Super Bowl XLII and, aided by a Pass Interference call, did it again this week, with, of course, a little less on the line. The G-Men are sitting nicely at 6-2 and on a three-game win streak. They face San Francisco next week, and that should be a cracker.
What to make of the Patriots? Well, we all knew that their defense isn't very good. It's proven statistically and by just watching a football game. They were victimised on a late drive and allowed Manning to throw for 250 yards and two scores. Tom Brady has 10 interceptions on the season. There've been seasons where he hasn't had that many in sixteen weeks. It's a little ironic that everyone continues to call Eli Manning the Interception Machine, yet he has four less than Brady.
Speaking of interceptions, San Diego Chargers QB Philip Rivers leads the league with 14. He threw 3 today in the 45-38 loss to Green Bay. Two of those picks were returned for six points by the Packers defense. In a shoot-out game, those were the difference between a Chargers win and a Packers loss. Now, San Diego are on a 3-game losing streak and try to avoid making it four against Oakland on Thursday night. Bottom line, Rivers needs to hold onto the football and make better throws. He just hasn't looked good this year. Not like the 'good' you normally expect from him, anyway.
Miami finally get a win, beating Kansas City 31-3, but is that really good news in terms of the future? Perhaps not, given that Indianapolis, who lost today and remain without a win this season, are now front runners for the #1 overall draft pick, that will surely be Stanford QB Andrew Luck. Can you imagine Luck sitting a few years behind Manning? It did wonders for Aaron Rodgers, with Brett Favre as tutor. The rest of the league must be trembling at the thought!
The Jets might be back. Maybe. Possibly. At least, they are this week, and they looked pretty good beating Buffalo 27-11 inside Ralph Wilson Stadium. Much maligned quarterback Mark Sanchez did what he had to do, going 20-28 for 230 yards, a TD and an INT. Turnovers killed Buffalo. The Jets took advantage. The AFC East is an interesting place now, with New England, the Jets and Buffalo all close together and fighting it out.
Joe Flacco is ice cold, baby. The Baltimore QB put together a drive and a half to beat Pittsburgh, and it was a sensational football game to end a day full of good ones. Steelers vs. Ravens is never short on drama.
Aaron Rodgers isn't too bad, either. What did he do today? A lazy 21-26 for 247 yards and 4 TDs. Good day at the office. The Packers defense is worrying, though. They gave up a lot of yards and points to San Diego's depleted offense. I guess it's not too much of a problem when you have Rodgers running an offense that can pretty much outscore anyone on the planet.
Surprise packet of the season? By far and away, the Cincinnati Bengals, the forgotten team in the AFC North. No one, I don't think, expected such a rapid improvement, but this is a team that is blossoming before our eyes. QB Andy Dalton has had an immediate impact, as has WR AJ Green, and the Bengal defense is lights-out.
Philadelphia's dream season is slowly fading. Their Monday Night Football loss to Chicago in the City of Brotherly Love drops them to 3-5 and what progress they had made over the last few weeks - two wins, one on either side of the bye week - has been undone and their chances of a playoff berth look more unlikely now than ever before. Even so, there is a chance, for the Eagles schedule to the end features New England, Seattle, Miami, NY Jets, Dallas and Washington. If they win 4 of those, does 7-5 in the NFC East make it in? Good question, with the rough schedule the Giants have and Dallas languishing a spot ahead of the Eagles at 4-4.
Philadelphia's dream season is slowly fading. Their Monday Night Football loss to Chicago in the City of Brotherly Love drops them to 3-5 and what progress they had made over the last few weeks - two wins, one on either side of the bye week - has been undone and their chances of a playoff berth look more unlikely now than ever before. Even so, there is a chance, for the Eagles schedule to the end features New England, Seattle, Miami, NY Jets, Dallas and Washington. If they win 4 of those, does 7-5 in the NFC East make it in? Good question, with the rough schedule the Giants have and Dallas languishing a spot ahead of the Eagles at 4-4.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
NCAA College Football 2011: Week Ten Review
Clearly, the first ever Friday night game for the USC Trojans suited them nicely. It was a cold night in Boulder, Colorado, but QB Matt Barkley ley up the night for the Men of Troy, throwing a school-record 6 TDs in the 42-17 demolition of the injury-ravaged Buffaloes at Folsom Field. An impressive mark for Barkley - 25-39 for 318 yards, 6 TDs and 1 INT - especially when you consider the All Star list of quarterbacks who have thrown passes at USC before him: Leinart, Palmer, Peete, Sanchez, Johnson. USC fans everywhere, including this one, hoping Barkley comes back for his senior season.
WILD Mid-American Conference game on Tuesday night. 123 total points were scored - 17 touchdowns and 3 field goals - between Northern Illinois and Toledo in a game that featured 1121 total yards of offense, two scores by NIU on kick-off returns and only one turnover. It was a sensational game of football that didn't get much national recognition given it's Tuesday night slot. But those of us who stumbled across it saw something pretty amazing. Not since the days of Central Michigan's Dan LeFevour have we seen such crazy offense in the MAC.
Great to see Big Ten football played in November, when it's cool and overcast. Michigan vs. Iowa in Iowa City was a pretty entertaining football game. While defenses continue to force Denard Robinson 17-37 for 194 yards, 2 TDs and 1 INT - to throw, the Wolverines, against good opposition, will lose more games than they'll win. Iowa forced two turnovers and managed a late stand against Robinson and the Michigan offense to get their season back on track at 6-3 after last week's tough loss to Minnesota. RB Marcus Coker is one of the most underrated runners in the Big Ten.
LSU vs. Alabama. The Game of the Century. It lived up to all the hype and more. We may not see two better defenses on the same field for a decade. The fitting overtime end served to put an exclamation mark on the game of the season. For those who dislike defensive struggles, this should have changed their mind. It was more gripping and compelling than Tuesday night's MAC shootout in Toledo, Ohio. It is a great shame that this was not the final game of the season. A better and more even contest seems unlikely.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban will be ruing many missed opportunities. The Crimson Tide out-gained LSU, but missed four field goals that would have given them the win. The Marquis Maze pass to the goal line, brilliantly intercepted after being reefed away from the Alabama receiver by LSU's Eric Reid was another turning point. Had that ball been thrown with just a little more power and accuracy, the result would have been six - and most likely seven - Alabama points, and the road back for LSU would've been much steeper uphill. Similarly, QB AJ McCarron taking a sack on the third down play in OT pushed 'Bama back into the No Man's Land of Field Goal attempts, one that was not successful. LSU went on to kick their own three-pointer and win the game again. Alabama would hope for another shot at Les Miles' team.
It will be interesting to see where Les Miles goes as far as the quarterback situation at LSU is concerned. Yes, Jarrett Lee made some bad throws and looked like the shaky QB we have seen in past years, but I am a firm believer that the Tigers need his arm as much as they need Jordan Jefferson's ability to use his feet to make a play. Jefferson may start going down the stretch, but I would be very surprised to not see Lee making a significant contribution.
A wild day in the Big Ten's Legends Division sees Michigan State on top, even though they barely survived a plucky Minnesota team in East Lansing today. Nebraska suffered a home loss to Northwestern who were without star QB Dan Persa, Michigan proved - see above - that they cannot win on the road - in Iowa City and suddenly, the much suggested Michigan State vs. Wisconsin Big Ten Title Game seems a reality, or at least a possibility, though there are still some key games to be played.
Oklahoma State barely survived their own game tonight. While the epic but dour struggle between LSU and Alabama played out, there was an epic and firework-laden game taking place in Stillwater, Oklahoma between OSU and Kansas State. QB Brandon Weeden led the charge for the Cowboys, rolling up 502 passing yards - a school record - and four touchdowns and RB Joseph Randle scored a 23-yard rushing TD to ice the game with 2:16 to play, giving the Cowboys a 52-45 victory. All American WR Justin Blackmon caught 13 balls for a whopping 205 yards and 2 TDs. Weeden to Blackmon is a heck of a pitch-and-catch combination.
In Las Vegas, QB Kellen Moore threw for 5 touchdowns, and the Boise State Broncos survived a slight first-half challenge from UNLV to extend their undefeated record. Moore, who left the game in the fourth quarter, added another 224 yards through the air in the Broncos 48-21 road victory, is now the winningest quarterback in college football history, with one more win than Texas legend Colt McCoy. Surely, too, Moore is a Heisman candidate.
Horrible news for Oklahoma's talented WR Ryan Broyles, the NCAA’s career leader in receptions, who tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during the Sooners' victory against Texas A&M today. Broyles will miss the remainder of the season.
Once more, Case Keenum won, and won handily. The Cougars, ranked fourteenth in the nation and sure to rise, defeated UAB 56-13. Once again, Keenum was superb. His figures on Saturday were not quite as gaudy as his 500 yard/9 touchdown effort last Thursday vs. Rice, but still nothing to sneeze at. He went 39-44 for 407 yards and 2 TDs, as well as 2 rushes for 2 yards and 2 TDs. Backup Cotton Turner played most of the fourth quarter.
The nation's longest winning streak stands at 17 after QB Andrew Luck threw 3 touchdowns on a chilly night in Corvallis, Oregon. Stanford, the best team in the Pac-12, beat the Beavers 38-13, but lost senior receiver Chris Owusu to a concussion in the second quarter after a heavy helmet-to-helmet collision. He was transported from the field by ambulance.
There are many scenarios, all complicated, that would see Alabama and LSU meeting at the New Orleans Superdome in the BCS National Championship Game. Let us all hope that those scenarios work themselves out over the next month, for a rematch of these two great SEC powers would be a fitting end to another epic season of college football.
Great to see Big Ten football played in November, when it's cool and overcast. Michigan vs. Iowa in Iowa City was a pretty entertaining football game. While defenses continue to force Denard Robinson 17-37 for 194 yards, 2 TDs and 1 INT - to throw, the Wolverines, against good opposition, will lose more games than they'll win. Iowa forced two turnovers and managed a late stand against Robinson and the Michigan offense to get their season back on track at 6-3 after last week's tough loss to Minnesota. RB Marcus Coker is one of the most underrated runners in the Big Ten.
LSU vs. Alabama. The Game of the Century. It lived up to all the hype and more. We may not see two better defenses on the same field for a decade. The fitting overtime end served to put an exclamation mark on the game of the season. For those who dislike defensive struggles, this should have changed their mind. It was more gripping and compelling than Tuesday night's MAC shootout in Toledo, Ohio. It is a great shame that this was not the final game of the season. A better and more even contest seems unlikely.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban will be ruing many missed opportunities. The Crimson Tide out-gained LSU, but missed four field goals that would have given them the win. The Marquis Maze pass to the goal line, brilliantly intercepted after being reefed away from the Alabama receiver by LSU's Eric Reid was another turning point. Had that ball been thrown with just a little more power and accuracy, the result would have been six - and most likely seven - Alabama points, and the road back for LSU would've been much steeper uphill. Similarly, QB AJ McCarron taking a sack on the third down play in OT pushed 'Bama back into the No Man's Land of Field Goal attempts, one that was not successful. LSU went on to kick their own three-pointer and win the game again. Alabama would hope for another shot at Les Miles' team.
It will be interesting to see where Les Miles goes as far as the quarterback situation at LSU is concerned. Yes, Jarrett Lee made some bad throws and looked like the shaky QB we have seen in past years, but I am a firm believer that the Tigers need his arm as much as they need Jordan Jefferson's ability to use his feet to make a play. Jefferson may start going down the stretch, but I would be very surprised to not see Lee making a significant contribution.
A wild day in the Big Ten's Legends Division sees Michigan State on top, even though they barely survived a plucky Minnesota team in East Lansing today. Nebraska suffered a home loss to Northwestern who were without star QB Dan Persa, Michigan proved - see above - that they cannot win on the road - in Iowa City and suddenly, the much suggested Michigan State vs. Wisconsin Big Ten Title Game seems a reality, or at least a possibility, though there are still some key games to be played.
Oklahoma State barely survived their own game tonight. While the epic but dour struggle between LSU and Alabama played out, there was an epic and firework-laden game taking place in Stillwater, Oklahoma between OSU and Kansas State. QB Brandon Weeden led the charge for the Cowboys, rolling up 502 passing yards - a school record - and four touchdowns and RB Joseph Randle scored a 23-yard rushing TD to ice the game with 2:16 to play, giving the Cowboys a 52-45 victory. All American WR Justin Blackmon caught 13 balls for a whopping 205 yards and 2 TDs. Weeden to Blackmon is a heck of a pitch-and-catch combination.
In Las Vegas, QB Kellen Moore threw for 5 touchdowns, and the Boise State Broncos survived a slight first-half challenge from UNLV to extend their undefeated record. Moore, who left the game in the fourth quarter, added another 224 yards through the air in the Broncos 48-21 road victory, is now the winningest quarterback in college football history, with one more win than Texas legend Colt McCoy. Surely, too, Moore is a Heisman candidate.
Horrible news for Oklahoma's talented WR Ryan Broyles, the NCAA’s career leader in receptions, who tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during the Sooners' victory against Texas A&M today. Broyles will miss the remainder of the season.
Once more, Case Keenum won, and won handily. The Cougars, ranked fourteenth in the nation and sure to rise, defeated UAB 56-13. Once again, Keenum was superb. His figures on Saturday were not quite as gaudy as his 500 yard/9 touchdown effort last Thursday vs. Rice, but still nothing to sneeze at. He went 39-44 for 407 yards and 2 TDs, as well as 2 rushes for 2 yards and 2 TDs. Backup Cotton Turner played most of the fourth quarter.
The nation's longest winning streak stands at 17 after QB Andrew Luck threw 3 touchdowns on a chilly night in Corvallis, Oregon. Stanford, the best team in the Pac-12, beat the Beavers 38-13, but lost senior receiver Chris Owusu to a concussion in the second quarter after a heavy helmet-to-helmet collision. He was transported from the field by ambulance.
There are many scenarios, all complicated, that would see Alabama and LSU meeting at the New Orleans Superdome in the BCS National Championship Game. Let us all hope that those scenarios work themselves out over the next month, for a rematch of these two great SEC powers would be a fitting end to another epic season of college football.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
NCAA College Football 2011: Week Ten Australian TV Guide
Good news and bad news this week on ESPN. Because of Spanish Primera Division soccer and Spring Horse Racing, ESPN is showing only three games on Sunday. The good news? One of them, at least according to the latest TV guides, is the Game of the Century! That's right, No. 1 LSU vs. No. 2 Alabama will take centre stage on Sunday.
All times AEDT
Friday 4 November
Florida State vs. Boston College (11.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
Saturday 5 November
College Football Live (11.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
No. 21 USC vs. Colorado (12.00pm; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
Sunday 6 November
College GameDay - Tuscaloosa, Alabama (12.01am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 13 Michigan vs. Iowa (3.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
College Football Scoreboard (6.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
Texas A&M vs. No. 7 Oklahoma (6.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
College Football Scoreboard (9.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 1 Louisiana State vs. No. 2 Alabama (11.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
All times AEDT
Friday 4 November
Florida State vs. Boston College (11.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
Saturday 5 November
College Football Live (11.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
No. 21 USC vs. Colorado (12.00pm; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
Sunday 6 November
College GameDay - Tuscaloosa, Alabama (12.01am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 13 Michigan vs. Iowa (3.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
College Football Scoreboard (6.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
Texas A&M vs. No. 7 Oklahoma (6.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
College Football Scoreboard (9.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD)
No. 1 Louisiana State vs. No. 2 Alabama (11.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD)
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
NFL 2011: Week Eight Review
Nothing like having the Denver Broncos and maligned QB Tim Tebow on your schedule after a couple of losses. A solid victory against a bad team heading into a bye is a sure way to restore confidence, which the Detroit Lions needed after dropping their last two games, evening out to a 5-2 record heading into Sunday. There was so much good about the Lions in Denver. Defense, offense, special teams; it all clicked. And WR Calvin Johnson is looking pretty much unstoppable.
As far as the Denver offensive situation goes, I didn't see anything this week to make me change my mind on Tim Tebow. The guy was a pretty good college quarterback, and he became something of an American hero as a result, but the brutal fact of the matter is that Tebow is not a good NFL quarterback and will not be a good NFL quarterback. His mechanics are terrible, his arm strength is...well, not strong, and his vision leaves something to be desired, based on the number of open receivers he missed. Then there are the thirteen sacks in two weeks as starter. None of this is anywhere approaching good. Josh McDaniels really did a Matt Millen-style job on Denver by trading up for this guy. Time to go back to back-up Kyle Orton – or insert third-stringer Brady Quinn – to ride out the season and look at drafting a signal caller like Landry Jones or Brandon Weeden for next year. Beating Miami is one thing; beating a really good football team is something else and on Sunday, Tebow showed he couldn't get it done. It’s sad, sure, but it’s also the truth. Good luck against the Raiders, Timmy!
The seesaw NFC East takes another lurching turn, with Philadelphia getting closer to .500 with a solid victory against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night, watched by more than twenty million across America on NBC. This is definitely the craziest division in football, especially given that the hapless Redskins led it for a number of weeks and are now imploding. The Giants have the best record at the moment, but they have a horror run to the finish, including games vs. New England, Green Bay, Dallas, Philadelphia and San Francisco, among others. It’s feasible that the Eagles come back and win the division, though I wouldn't put my house on it. The way things have gone thus far, you figure there’s still some twists to come.
Good for the Pittsburgh Steelers, finally getting a win vs. New England. Tom Brady was 6-1 all-time vs. the Steelers, but on Sunday, that big bad defense that seems to go missing routinely when it’s facing Brady and the Pats, turned up and played good, solid, assignment football. They spent plenty of time up in Brady’s face, and he looked noticeably rattled. It was his worst statistical game of the season, and having a defense that was picked apart by QB Ben Roethlisberger didn't help, either. Watch out AFC, the Steelers are suddenly roaring back into contention.
I am surely not the only one confused by the New Orleans Saints. They put up 62 points last week against Indianapolis – and looked really good in the process – and, this week, against the previously winless St Louis Rams, who were without their starting QB/growing superstar Sam Bradford, they laid an absolute egg, getting battered around by backup quarterback A.J. Feeley and RB Steven Jackson, who went wild on the ground. I know the NFL is a ‘here and now’ league, but that was just crazy.
There’s trouble brewing out west for the San Diego Chargers, who looked far from their normal AFC contender selves on Monday night against Kansas City in a game that didn't exactly reach great heights. The big story, for mine, is that QB Philip Rivers, once mentioned as an elite quarterback in the NFL, is having a horrible season. Two INTs and no TDs in the OT loss to the Chiefs, and it’s really a continuation of a sub-par effort all year. With Green Bay up next, it seems that life will only get worse for the Chargers. Although, based on New Orleans this week compared to last, anything’s possible.
Pittsburgh vs. Baltimore on Sunday night. In week one, the Ravens absolutely smashed the Steelers, so the revenge angle is there. And even if it wasn't, this is one of the great rivalries in the game, played ferociously between two teams who, traditionally, don't like each other very much. The Ravens need to rediscover the offense they’ve lost, squeaking home last vs. Arizona, and Pittsburgh, buoyed by their effort against Brady and the Pats, might not give them a chance. It’s one of the games I look forward to every year, bring it on!
As far as the Denver offensive situation goes, I didn't see anything this week to make me change my mind on Tim Tebow. The guy was a pretty good college quarterback, and he became something of an American hero as a result, but the brutal fact of the matter is that Tebow is not a good NFL quarterback and will not be a good NFL quarterback. His mechanics are terrible, his arm strength is...well, not strong, and his vision leaves something to be desired, based on the number of open receivers he missed. Then there are the thirteen sacks in two weeks as starter. None of this is anywhere approaching good. Josh McDaniels really did a Matt Millen-style job on Denver by trading up for this guy. Time to go back to back-up Kyle Orton – or insert third-stringer Brady Quinn – to ride out the season and look at drafting a signal caller like Landry Jones or Brandon Weeden for next year. Beating Miami is one thing; beating a really good football team is something else and on Sunday, Tebow showed he couldn't get it done. It’s sad, sure, but it’s also the truth. Good luck against the Raiders, Timmy!
The seesaw NFC East takes another lurching turn, with Philadelphia getting closer to .500 with a solid victory against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night, watched by more than twenty million across America on NBC. This is definitely the craziest division in football, especially given that the hapless Redskins led it for a number of weeks and are now imploding. The Giants have the best record at the moment, but they have a horror run to the finish, including games vs. New England, Green Bay, Dallas, Philadelphia and San Francisco, among others. It’s feasible that the Eagles come back and win the division, though I wouldn't put my house on it. The way things have gone thus far, you figure there’s still some twists to come.
Good for the Pittsburgh Steelers, finally getting a win vs. New England. Tom Brady was 6-1 all-time vs. the Steelers, but on Sunday, that big bad defense that seems to go missing routinely when it’s facing Brady and the Pats, turned up and played good, solid, assignment football. They spent plenty of time up in Brady’s face, and he looked noticeably rattled. It was his worst statistical game of the season, and having a defense that was picked apart by QB Ben Roethlisberger didn't help, either. Watch out AFC, the Steelers are suddenly roaring back into contention.
I am surely not the only one confused by the New Orleans Saints. They put up 62 points last week against Indianapolis – and looked really good in the process – and, this week, against the previously winless St Louis Rams, who were without their starting QB/growing superstar Sam Bradford, they laid an absolute egg, getting battered around by backup quarterback A.J. Feeley and RB Steven Jackson, who went wild on the ground. I know the NFL is a ‘here and now’ league, but that was just crazy.
There’s trouble brewing out west for the San Diego Chargers, who looked far from their normal AFC contender selves on Monday night against Kansas City in a game that didn't exactly reach great heights. The big story, for mine, is that QB Philip Rivers, once mentioned as an elite quarterback in the NFL, is having a horrible season. Two INTs and no TDs in the OT loss to the Chiefs, and it’s really a continuation of a sub-par effort all year. With Green Bay up next, it seems that life will only get worse for the Chargers. Although, based on New Orleans this week compared to last, anything’s possible.
Pittsburgh vs. Baltimore on Sunday night. In week one, the Ravens absolutely smashed the Steelers, so the revenge angle is there. And even if it wasn't, this is one of the great rivalries in the game, played ferociously between two teams who, traditionally, don't like each other very much. The Ravens need to rediscover the offense they’ve lost, squeaking home last vs. Arizona, and Pittsburgh, buoyed by their effort against Brady and the Pats, might not give them a chance. It’s one of the games I look forward to every year, bring it on!
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